Thank you again.
We still don't know the price range, but if it is a download-play, it will most likely be around US $10-$15, which in my opinion is very reasonable. We still haven't talked about making SD cards (which I would prefer) but we believe that keeping the price low is VERY important
we all payed a good sum for the GP2X! Remember that we will probably have the sales contract with GPH, so it really depends on them, but if you check their Korean website, all of their games are 10,000 Won, which is $10 (from download).
I'm a big puzzle fan too (obviously hehe) and both casual and hardcore gamers can get alot of fun out of it. I'm busy with college projects, and I believe we will first launch the demo around December 1st.
These are all tentative issues, the game engine is almost done
about 90%. I guess if people come to my house to kill me we'll be releasing a demo sooner!
(I'm just kidding btw, please don't kill me, but I will try to have the demo ready ASAP!)
Thanks,
-- YuanHao
Hello, everyone.
My name is Yuan-Hsi Chiang and I'm in charge of the artistic and design department at Yuan Works.
First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for all the great feedback; it is the opinion of the GP2X community the one that matters most to us.
We're very happy that for the most part, we've heard possitive comments. They are enormously appreciated by us.
Yes, we aren't exactly the happiest with the contest results, so I guess we'll have to wait and see what kind of graphic novel that was so to snatch the first place so firmly. Thank you for all your support.
Of course, ALSO equally as welcome are the critiques made towards our game. We really like to hear your opinion.
crimsonnight: Don't worry, we will try to keep the price as accessible as we can. We'll try to have a demo ready soon so you can judge for yourself if you like our game.
A_SN:Thank you very much for your comments. Yes my friend, I would agree with you that our game doesn't use the full capacities of the GP2X. But Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles is pretty much a first generation game on the console's life-span. Remember the old days with the Famicom/NES, SFamicom/SNES, MegaDrive/Genesis, Playstation, and all others? They didn't start getting sofware that would really show the potential of each respective console until much later when more software was available.
Also, we have worked on the GameBoy Advance. Not homebrew, but professionally as contract work for game developers. We know pretty much the strenghts and weakenesses of the console, and I assure you, my friend, we DO NOT think the GP2X is a big GameBoy.
Also, anyone familiar with puzzle battles games with complex engines (not that many, I'm affraid) probably know the all time greats like Panel de Pon/Tetris Attack. The SFamicom/SNES game had a lot of slowdown and clumsiness because the CPU tried to calculate the matches (I don't mean it isn't great, though). The GameBoy Advance version is MUCH clumsier and feels a little bit jerky for experienced players. And it was done by a professional Japanese company.
Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles simply cannot be made for the GBA the way it runs on GP2X. It has a MUCH more complex engine (we're not saying it's better, but it's immensely more complex); you can read a little bit about how it works in our website. The graphics are arcade quality since the resolution is so good, each character has over 100 frames of animation, there are over 40 or 50 different sounds playing during matches, as well as streamed audio and, if you're playing against the computer, advanced AI. The special effects are animated traditionally, like they were done on the NeoGeo MVS system. Our game doesn't drop frames, doesn't load, and saves your battery time. And our code is pretty clean.
We wrote this so that you don't think that we are not serious about the GP2X, on the contrary, we are planning to work on bigger projects with GamePark Holdings to try to see it's capabilities to the limit. Thanks again for your opinion.
JUSTiNB: Thank you for your feedback, it is a GREAT compliment. That's exactly the kind of quality we sought to achieve. About the music, we're sorry that some of it is not to your liking, but many of it comes from the Yuan Works characters that are in the game, and many of these were RPGs. But don't worry, there are more upbeat tunes for people like you, and we hope you will like them! Well, the soundtrack right now is over 20 songs, so we might hit the spot with at least one!
To everyone: Thank you for your time and support, it is very encouraging that the people who matter the most, the GP2X community are so receptive towards us. Reading comments like "you deserve 1st price", and "nice and polished game" really make working so hard on developing games worth all the trouble. After all, they are meant for you guys to have fun!
Best regards
Yuan
